Film Publication Board (FPB) and gaming in SA
hi guys.
As you probably know, the FPB has published draft legislation concerning CENSORSHIP OF SOCIAL MEDIA etc. in SA. There is quite an uproar at the moment from media houses and news content providers - the FPB is essentially saying that ALL media content, including posts to social media like Facebook etc. will first have to be classified/reviewed by them, before anything can be published, and that a fee will be payable to the FPB before any video or other content can be approved for publication. What this amounts to is a whole lot of BS.... it's censorship and nothing more.
"According to The Right2Know, the Film and Publications Board’s (FPB) has proposed to censor the internet in South Africa. According to the group, the FPB wants broadly defined powers to police all content published on the Internet. This will include blogs, personal websites, and Facebook pages."
"The draft document states that: “Any person who intends to distribute any film, game, or certain publication in the Republic of South Africa shall first comply with section 18(1) of the [1996 Films and Publications] Act by applying, in the prescribed manner, for registration as film or game and publications distributor.” It is clear from this statement that the new regulations apply to an absurdly broad range of content that is not limited to that which is published online. It also suggests that the target of this regulation is not just major distributors but also individuals. In terms of the wording of the document, everything published on the Internet – including blogs, personal websites and Facebook pages – could be subjected to classification from the FPB.”
“According to the document, anyone wishing to publish or distribute content will have to first apply for a digital publisher’s online distribution agreement with the FPB, which will require a subscription fee. Once paid, the publisher would have to submit the content to the FPB for classification prior to publishing. This effectively is a specific form of pre-publication censorship, which is not acceptable.”
http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2015/03/fpb-proposes-to-censor-the-internet-in-south-africa/
This concerns the gaming industry in SA as well, and could be especially troublesome for indie developers.
What do you guys think about this? Anyone have experience dealing with the FPB to get a game published?
As you probably know, the FPB has published draft legislation concerning CENSORSHIP OF SOCIAL MEDIA etc. in SA. There is quite an uproar at the moment from media houses and news content providers - the FPB is essentially saying that ALL media content, including posts to social media like Facebook etc. will first have to be classified/reviewed by them, before anything can be published, and that a fee will be payable to the FPB before any video or other content can be approved for publication. What this amounts to is a whole lot of BS.... it's censorship and nothing more.
"According to The Right2Know, the Film and Publications Board’s (FPB) has proposed to censor the internet in South Africa. According to the group, the FPB wants broadly defined powers to police all content published on the Internet. This will include blogs, personal websites, and Facebook pages."
"The draft document states that: “Any person who intends to distribute any film, game, or certain publication in the Republic of South Africa shall first comply with section 18(1) of the [1996 Films and Publications] Act by applying, in the prescribed manner, for registration as film or game and publications distributor.” It is clear from this statement that the new regulations apply to an absurdly broad range of content that is not limited to that which is published online. It also suggests that the target of this regulation is not just major distributors but also individuals. In terms of the wording of the document, everything published on the Internet – including blogs, personal websites and Facebook pages – could be subjected to classification from the FPB.”
“According to the document, anyone wishing to publish or distribute content will have to first apply for a digital publisher’s online distribution agreement with the FPB, which will require a subscription fee. Once paid, the publisher would have to submit the content to the FPB for classification prior to publishing. This effectively is a specific form of pre-publication censorship, which is not acceptable.”
http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2015/03/fpb-proposes-to-censor-the-internet-in-south-africa/
This concerns the gaming industry in SA as well, and could be especially troublesome for indie developers.
What do you guys think about this? Anyone have experience dealing with the FPB to get a game published?
Comments
The problem is:
The main issue I see with that though is that the government can still have videos taken down after the fact if they disagree with the contents.
"According to the document, anyone wishing to publish or distribute content will have to first apply for a digital publisher’s online distribution agreement with the FPB, which will require a subscription fee. Once paid, the publisher would have to submit the content to the FPB for classification prior to publishing. This effectively is a specific form of pre-publication censorship, which is not acceptable.”
Every single bit of content would need to be pre-approved before it is made available for public consumption, and furthermore, you'd need to be registered and pay a licence fee in order to get your content approved in the first place.
As pointed out, this proposed legislation is unconstitutional and would be practically impossible to effectively implement, but our country has a pretty alarming record of still pushing through unjust, un-workable systems (hi E-Tolls!). As dumb as it seems, I think it's pretty important to take this proposition very seriously.
I'm keen to go through the past MGSA threads on the subject to see what all has been said, but I think it's also extremely important that our response isn't simply "we don't have 5 million Rand to fight this" and leave it at that. If passed, this bill would be severely detrimental to all of us doing what we do. I think we have to band together in doing as much as we can to fight this thing. How best we can do that is something that needs serious consideration and discussion.
As a start, I'd like to encourage everyone to sign the petition that Right To Know are currently running.
Past that, I think we could collectively come up with some great ways to try help ensure this absurd document doesn't become a depressing reality. "Free Internet"-themed game jam anyone?
Thus:
• Someone living in South Africa could legally create content and upload for consumption by anyone in the world, but it would not be viewable to anyone living in South Africa until it is approved.
• Someone living outside of South Africa could produce content and upload it for general consumption, but doesn't give a toss about the FPB so the content never becomes viewable to anyone living here.
Unless your game is exceptionally popular with SA audiences, it probably wouldn't affect your ability to publish and make profitable games. It would however make South Africa in impractical market for your indie games, and if the rules are actually enforced, it would also effectively remove our access to the wide selection of indie-content like youtube channels, indie games, small art projects out there. If this law doesn't terrify you, then you should go and read it properly.
1. This isn't legislation, it's policy. The difference is policy is not law per se, it is merely how a government body decides to implement said law.
2. Technically, the FPB can do all of this stuff already in terms of the current Films and Publications Board Act and it's regulation. This policy is simply showing how they intend to do it. Further the actual pieces of legislation filling in some of the gaps is already in bill format and (to my knowledge) already gone through the public participation process.
3. Not all content creators need to register. If you would classify as "user-generated" content, then you do not need to apply (however the board does have the ability to retroactively pull your content).
4. In terms of enforcement, how the FPB is going to do this is to enter into agreements with the major distribution platforms (Google, Apple, Steam etc). They have already signed agreements with most of these.
5. This policy isn't all bad. The big win for us as game developers is it allows us to self-regulate something I've been pushing for for ages.
This is what Make Games is doing about it.
1. We will be drafting written and oral submission to pose to the FPB on how the policy should be amended or improved. Part of this submission is to improve the self regulation sections to make them more workable. The second is to oppose the inclusion of "user-generated" content outright, failing which we are recommending massive changes and remove a lot of the vagueness.
2. I am meeting with the major suppliers (Google and Humble are on the cards, I'm working on Apple and Steam) to get their input and see what they are doing or how they will implement this.
What you can do to help.
All of this costs money, and currently it is something I'm doing from my own pocket, if you really want to help, and you think it is worthwhile we can look at starting a fundraising campaign to hlep.
Alternatively, sign the petition, but also submit your own comments to the FPB on why you think the policy should be changed or scraped. You have until June to do so.
I'll post more info on the forums as things progress.
Any guidelines on what our letters to the FPB should contain/touch on? If I get enough guidance, I can take a stab at drafting a rough version that people can use as a base for their own mails.